Kentico CMS 7: Content Validation Improvements

Validation of web content code is an important step directly connected with quality and professionalism of the resulting website. Using standards for content markup, separation of style and content, and other techniques help to create websites with a consistent look regardless of the browser or device accessing it. Using valid HTML code also helps search engines to index your pages properly and therefore could lead to better SEO results.

We at Kentico are aware of the importance of content validation and its impact on users and search engines. Since version 6, HTML and CSS validation tools as well as the Link checker (which inspects possible broken links) have all been integrated directly into our product. Version 7 brings a few changes to these tools for an improved user experience and introduces the new Accessibility validation tool.

UI data export for validation results

In Kentico CMS 6, it is possible to export the output of validators to Microsoft Excel. In version 7 we have replaced this feature by the more flexible UI data export functionality, which allows you to export validation results to XLSX, CSV or XML files. Advanced export is also available for more demanding scenarios.

Simpler way to locate errors in code

One of the most common operations in content validation is locating the source of the error. In version 7 we focus on simplifying this operation by adding the View source action to every error, which is localizable in the source (HTML or CSS) content.

Accessibility validator

A brand new feature available in Kentico CMS 7 is the Accessibility validator. There aren't just ethical reasons for creating accessible websites, but legal reasons too, as some countries have laws demanding web content accessibility in order to prevent discrimination of disabled users. The Accessibility validator is the right tool to help fulfill these requirements. It allows you to check the conformance of your HTML code with the following most common accessibility standards:

• BITV 1.0 - Barrierefreie Informationstechnik-Verordnung (Germany standard)
• Section 508 - Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act (USA standard)
• Stanca Act (Italian standard)
• WCAG 1.0
• WCAG 2.0